28 Days Later you will still be trying to forget you wasted $7.50

Rating: 1/10 (1 July 2003)

What a let down. I read the myriad of reviews already posted for this movie and was really looking forward to it. Ugh! I predict it will be gone from American theaters within 28 days of its release. The concept is good but the forced themes and predictable plot structure hurt the film.
As a movie patron one is expected to suspend disbelief and allow them to be drawn into the world of the movie. Unfortunately film writers often push suspension of disbelief so far that even a 5 year old would question what they were seeing. Welcome to `28 Days Left'; a story that spans 60 days in a world where the mass evacuation of London leaves no abandoned cars anywhere (except in the tunnels), zombies that hide off camera until the film needs some shock value (to wake-up the bored audience) and the `Rage' virus will turn you into a stark raving lunatic within 30 seconds of exposure.
Where did everyone in London go? Judging by the weekend grosses they were at the Cineplex watching `The Hulk'. Why are there only dead people in church? Why don't the zombies get food at all the abandoned grocery stores? Why was this movie ever made?
Some questions are best left unanswered. The movie did have some good scares but they were merely cheap gags. There was no tension building, no sense of impending doom, and no sense of fear for the characters wellbeing. There was no gore. That is right, the `scariest zombie film yet' had less gore and violence than Friday the 13th, on broadcast TV shown in place of Saturday morning cartoons. By the end of the film I wanted the main characters to be infected with the 'Rage' virus and start killing each other. Sorry that was spoiler. The main characters don't kill each other in the final scene.
Which brings me to the ending. Not since the Keifer Sutherland version of `The Vanishing' has there been a more ridiculous example of a Hollywood happy ending. The director would have better served the audience by leaving the last 3 minutes of the film on the cutting room floor. He had an opportunity to give us a 'Jules et Jim' ending and salvage a shred of his integrity. Instead the audience is force-fed a `Scorpion King' happy ending.
If this review is more incoherent and disjointed than my usual ones, consider it my homage to the film. Consider it an echo of the plot. My advice is rent `Night of the Living Dead' (either version) instead.